The great reforms : autocracy, bureaucracy, and the politics of change in Imperial Russia W. Bruce Lincoln

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lincoln, W. Bruce.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Russia--Politics and government--1855-1881.

Russia.

Russia--Politics and government--1881-1894.

Russia--Politics and government--1894-1917.

Physical Description:

xxi, 281 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

DeKalb, Ill. : Northern Illinois University Press, 1990.

Summary:

The Great Reforms of the 1860s marked the broadest attempt at social and economic renovation to occur in Russia between the death of Peter the Great in 1725 and the Revolution of 1905. In just more than a decade, imperial reform acts freed Russia's serfs, restructured her courts, established institutions of local self-government in parts of the empire, altered the constraints that censorship imposed on the press, and transformed Russia's vast serf armed forces into a citizen army in which men from all classes bore equal responsibility for military service. This invaluable study explains why the legislation assumed the shape that it did and estimates what the Great Reforms ultimately accomplished. The Great Reforms offered readers a vital starting point from which to evaluate the prospects for glasnost', perestroika, and reform in the Gorbachev era.

Contents:

Autocracy, bureaucracy, and reform

The impact of defeat

Beginning Russia's renovation. Emancipating Russia's serfs ; The Zemstvo statutes ; Reforming Russia's courts

The great reform era. The censorship reform ; Reforming city government ; The military reforms

Testing the great reforms

At the turn of the century.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-269) and index.

Local Notes:

The Balch Ethnic Studies Collection.

ISBN:

0875801552

9780875801551

0875805493

9780875805498

OCLC:

21376939